Saying goodbye to the city

My final week in New York brought with it the same degree of insanity and chaos that had characterized every other week here – amazing – but exhausting. The internship experience here has involved daily meetings with individuals who could significantly influence my future in the field – and thus maintaining the constant façade of intelligence has been exhausting. For nine long hours each day I would ensure that my witty repertoire of jokes involving New Zealanders and sheep was kept in check – pronounce each word properly – including each and every friggin ‘r’ so that I was easily understood – contributed knowing glances and frightfully well-executed head nods during departmental meetings – and provided my fair-share of well-timed and insightful responses like ‘that IS interesting’ and ‘lets brainstorm that for the next meeting’. All in all it was an incredible experience – and provided an invaluable opportunity to meet those working in the field and learn from them first-hand. On a more amusing note – after a final dinner with my supervisor –we found out later that her friend at dinner was none other than George Bush’s cousin – he strangely enough doesn’t like to bring this up at dinner.

The countdown to my NYC departure also brought a visitor – with Steph flying out to the Big Apple to take advantage of the ‘broom closet on steroids’ that I call a bedroom. Despite work commitments the three of us were able to launch ourselves into some of the many unique gastronomical adventures that the city has to offer. These included a very causal ‘death by chocolate’ at the famous Serendipity 3 – where even my sweet tooth was no match for their sundaes and frozen hot chocolates. This particular venue also possesses the world’s most expensive sundae - $1000 (Guinness Book of Records) – with 48 hours notice being needed to fly in the ingredients. I am still not sure which is worse – the fact that this even exists – or that someone actually purchases one about each month. Given the price – I would want to ensure I was - at the very least – highly constipated for two weeks to really get my moneys worth. After this healthy indulgence it was off to Magnolia – purveyor of fine cupcakes – and while the irony of standing in a line at 10pm for a cupcake seemed to be lost on most people in attendance – these little cups of heaven were well worth the wait. Oh yeah – and we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art – not bad – but after setting the bar so high with the cupcakes – it was always going to be tough for a few Monet’s or Van Gough’s to stand out.

Now – as the summer comes to a close – and I pack up my bag once more – it is time to return to Notre Dame, get back to work, and stop enjoying life so damn much!

Pictured: Death by Chocolate at Serendipity & New York from the air